No tax bribery left undone: how the all-competent government “buys” everything—even the hiring of ex-cons

Did you know that the federal government, under a law aimed at helping 12 categories of “disadvantaged job applicants,” gives a tax credit of $2,400 to a business for each ex-offender or inmate on work-release the business hires? Some states have similar programs.

Look at this way: when government taxes 30, 40, or 50 percent of the income of an economy, it’s receiving an awful lot of taxes that it can then offer to reduce in the case of any given tax paying entity, such as a business, in exchange for some action the government wants done. Conversely, when 30, 40, or 50 percent of the value of an economy is being spent by government, there are an awful lot of entities receiving federal dollars which can then be coerced, under the threat of losing the federal dollars, into doing what the government wants done. No Child Left Behind, anyone? Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 28, 2010 11:58 AM | Send